Saturday, February 23, 2013

Shameless Baconry Bravo! (Bacon Havarti Pretzel Sandwiches)

So today was a busy day! I was supposed to have a college friend over for brunch, and I was going to make these awesome bacon egg cups. Plans changed and we went out for brunch instead (not to fear, I had a french omelette that consisted of bacon, ham and sausage). Then I was wondering what I would make as a back-up bacon blog meal because it's Saturday and I usually post Saturdays (yeah, yeah, I know, but I take my passion seriously). So I broke out the Bacon Playing Cards I picked up on last week's outing, and flipped up the Queen of Spades which said Bacon Salisbury Steak. Sweet. Got the ingredients to make that for dinner, and then went to the mall to shop for my Aunt's 75th birthday party. Racing thru the mall, because we were already running late, we pass an Aunt Annie's Pretzel stand. God, I love those things. It was very distracting. We then got our presents and left the mall for the party. The party had tons of food... deviled eggs, turkey meatballs in gravy (I know! Gravy! Pure deliciousness!)...and it was late by the time we got home. Too late to start making dinner and not really hungry enough for a huge Salisbury Steak dinner...but still needed to munch on something...what to make? Only the most delicious snack sandwich concocted.

Start by cooking your bacon. Any method, any way. A free for all. Be it pan, oven, microwave, boiling it in water (shut up, I've heard it can be done...still have to test this method out myself), cook to desired crispiness and drain the bacon on a paper towel. Rule of thumb, you want about 3 pieces of bacon per pretzel. Take your regular frozen pretzels and either let them thaw out (if you have the patience. I don't), or microwave them for 30 seconds per pretzel. Doing 2 at once? Nuke it for 1 minute. Cut the pretzel in half, like a roll. (Not rocket science) then layer your bacon, and sliced havarti slices. (Havarti is a mild, melty soft cheese. You can use any cheese, I just like the melt with this havarti.) Top with top of pretzel. Place in a frying pan, lightly sprayed with cooking spray or, a little bacon grease (lightbulb!). Keep it on medium heat, put the pretzels down in the pan, once hot enough, use a couple drops of water and cover the sandwiches to get the cheese to melt (old diner trick). Once cheese melts, eat it. Seriously, eat it before someone else does, cause it's just that delicious!